Iceland - Wildlife and Landscapes

Over the summer I spent a litte more than six weeks in Iceland travelling and working on medieval manuscripts in Reykjavík. I thought I would share some of the photos now that I have finally found the time to cull and edit through the immense amount I took.

Before I started working in Reykjavík I spent about a week travelling the ring road and hiking in Austurland. Because I was travelling with my mother, who has not been to Iceland before we stopped at most of the major attractions in the south. Also, they are too beautiful to just drive past, although the increasing masses of other tourists (make no mistake, I was no better) makes some places a lot less attractive than they used to be. First stops were Seljalandsfoss, Skogafoss and Jökulssárlon.
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On the way further east, I saw my first ever wild reindeer. I don't know what it did there all alone, but it did not like us getting close, so I was happy we had the 100-300 with us.
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The Eastfjords of Iceland are probably one of the most beautiful places in Iceland if such a ranking could justifiably exist. It certainly is mostly tourist free. We went hiking on a few day hikes in the area of Borgarfjörður-Eystri, a beautiful little village famous for being home to the capital of elves. Especially recommended is a fairly long hike to a place called Stórúrð, which as the name suggests features a field full of giant boulders with a stunning little lagoon of glacial water. As we were there at the beginning of July, most of the snow was still around.

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Borgarfjörður-Eystri is also the home of a puffin colony called Hafnarhólmi.
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Surprisingly, the P35-100 turned out more useful than the longer 100-300. The brighter aperture and the fact that the puffins get fairly close, made the 100-300 just way to clumsy in operation.

We returned to Reykjavík using the north route via Mývatn and Akureyri with a stop at Góðafoss.

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I had only seen this waterfall in the winter, where the difference between grey/white sky and white snow was only marginal.

We went on to dive Silfra, a glacial crevasse with absolutely clear, but also very cold (2-4°C) water. The following pictures were taken with a Panasonic LX7 in a Nauticam housing, with a wideangle wetlens.
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After that first week I began working and could only get out on trips for the weekends. First weekend was a trip to the Westfjords. Dynjandi has always been a favourite for me, although I never managed to get a good photo. I think I succeeded this time, although I would have preferred a few less clouds as I was there at sunset.

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Trying to take pictures of the birdcliffs of Látrabjarg at sunset unfortunately was made impossible by a thick layer of clouds. Instead, I tried myself at getting some of the Puffins as they were landing, with relative success.

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Lóndrángar in Snæfellsnes was another weekend destination. I went there twice that day. Once to scout out the location, when I scrambled around on some rocks to take a seascape shot and then at evening to finally get a good sunset.
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The last two weeks of the trip I spent travelling through the highlands by bus, visiting Kerlingarfjöll, Hveravellir Myvatn and Landmannalaugar. I've limited myself to two pictures here, as I couldn't really decide on any others. One is of Grjótagjá, a cave with hotspring water near Mývatn. It recently been forbidden to go swimming there, but if you are there over the winter it might be possible. I can certainly recommend it from experience in the past. The other is from Landmannalaugar. Unfortunately despite spending three nights there all I got at sunset or sunrise was clouds everywhere, so I had to live with dramatic skies during the day.
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Iceland looks/feels so small on a map, but clearly it contains a lifetims of shooting opportunities. Thanks for sharing your views of it!
Your composition and exposure are excellent - or your PP skills are doubly excellent!!

You have brought home some really great pictures
In July 2016 I spent a couple of days in Iceland. Since I joined a group I did not have the chance to take time to compose photos like you did; but I'm afraid that even if I would have had the time, I would not have been able to compete with your results
For everyone who did not yet visit Iceland, my recommendation: Go there and enjoy.
But be prepared that Iceland is no inexpensive travel destination

You have brought home some really great pictures
In July 2016 I spent a couple of days in Iceland. Since I joined a group I did not have the chance to take time to compose photos like you did; but I'm afraid that even if I would have had the time, I would not have been able to compete with your results
For everyone who did not yet visit Iceland, my recommendation: Go there and enjoy.
But be prepared that Iceland is no inexpensive travel destination

Click to expand...

Yes, going on your own really makes it a lot easier to spend some time on compositions. Although I have to give credit to my mom for the first week, where she was very patient when I took out the tripod to take the panoramas.

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